By Our Correspondent
SINGRAULI/BHUBANESWAR: Northern Coalfields Limited (NCL), an arm of Coal India Limited (CIL) under the Ministry of Coal has launched various CSR schemes and projects focused on village infrastructure, education, skill development, women empowerment, employment generation, sanitation and provision of clean drinking water amounting to Rs. 2.25 Crore to benefit the villagers of Singrauli. These pro-people programmes have been launched as part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav(AKAM) celebrations.
Inaugurating the programme Member of Parliament Smt. Riti Pathak lauded the efforts of NCL towards infrastructure development, livelihood generation and overall community development in Singrauli District. A new road constructed under NCL-CSR at a cost of ₹ 1.6 crores in Semuar Panchayat benefiting about ten thousand villagers living in Pali, Semur and nearby places has also been inaugurated as part of AKAM celebrations of NCL.
To further empower local women/girls and make them self-reliant, sewing machines and skill certificates were distributed to 27 women/ girls, trained in the centres under the ongoing skill development programme of NCL.
As part of ensuring modern education amenities in remote villages, eight sets of Smart TV and computers were distributed to nearby Govt. schools. Advanced laboratory equipment were also distributed to four government schools, helping more than 500 students to get practical knowledge in Science.Besides this, four water coolers with RO machines were handed over to the authorities to ensure safe drinking water for more than 1000 school children of the surrounding areas.
During the programme, floor mats, play school slides, utensils were also handed over for the children of 43 Anganvadis located in ten panchayats of Singrauli district.
Giving further fillip to Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, a garbage collection vehicle was also flagged off and handed over to the representative of the Naudhiya Panchayat. This vehicle will ensure door to door collection of waste to pave the way for a hygienic living environment to more than five thousand local people.
Inauguration of boundary wall of a school built under NCL-CSR located in village Bhowdar of Singrauli District and visit to the Khadi and Handloom Center set up by NCL, where around 30 women are getting training were some of the other highlights of the function.
NCL is Singrauli based MiniratnaCompany under the Ministry of Coal and operates with 10 highly mechanized opencast coal mines and accounts for 15 percent of national coal production. The companycontributed over 115 Million Tonnes of coal to the nation during the last financial year.